Lionel GrottoCEO of Paris Region Entreprises

Lionel Grotto was appointed CEO of Paris Region Entreprises in March 2018. Paris Region Entreprises is the agency in charge of supporting foreign companies in starting up new businesses in Paris Region. He holds a Master’s degree in engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique (2005), and a Master in Business Administration from the Ecole des Mines de Paris (2008). He is a member of the French Corps des Mines.

He has worked in the public and private sectors with a strong international background and expertise in telecommunications and energy.

In 2008 he is assistant project manager in the strategic planning department of the IT subsidiary of BNP Paribas (BNP Paribas Partners for Innovation, an IBM-BNPP joint-venture), where he works on the implementation of a configuration management database to support the change management processes of the organisation. In 2009 he joins the technical department of the Italian subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles and works on the installation of operations and maintenance systems on photovoltaic and wind power plants.

In 2011, he joins the ARCEP, the French regulator of the electronic communications and postal sectors, as adviser and then deputy-head of the ultra-fast broadband upstream market unit. He holds bilateral and multilateral discussions with public and private actors involved in the roll-out of fibre optic networks. He is then rapporteur on a mission for the government on the transition to fibre optic networks and the switch-off of the copper local loop.

In 2014 he joins the French Treasury as Financial counsellor at the French Embassy in Mexico, where he follows the economic and financial relations of France with Mexico and Central America and promotes France as a destination for investments.

He is then in 2016 advisor for Economic Affairs, Competitiveness and Major projects to Valérie Pécresse, President of the Paris Region.